AS Andrew Drury made his way through a Syrian camp looking for notorious ISIS bride Shamima Begum, his mind began to race.
Although the intrepid filmmaker had been in far more perilous situations – his nerves started to get the better of him.
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Andrew Drury with Jihadi bride Shamima BegumCredit: Supplied
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The filmmaker said his view of Begum changed as he got to know herCredit: Supplied
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The Al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria where Begum livesCredit: AFP
But when he was introduced to Begum – who left the UK aged 15 to join ISIS a decade ago in 2015 – he was taken aback.
“She was very shaky, very nervous, very shut, emotional, tearful,” Andrew told The Sun.
Father-of-four Andrew met Begum, who grew up in East London, for the first of six times at the Al-Roj campinSyria in June 2021 while filming for a documentary, Danger Zone.
In less than two years his view of Begum – accused of serving in the feared IS “morality police” and helping make suicide vests – completely changed, however.
He saw a colder side when she talked about how the death of her three children no longer upset her and even expressed support of Manchester Arena bomber Salman Abedi.
Extreme adventurer Andrew, who has made treacherous journeys to North Korea and Iraq, said at first Begum was a “thin, ill-looking, sad character” who was “very apologetic”.
“We took a long walk around the camp, She started to relax, and she said she used to take this regular walk right around the perimeter of the camp to clear her head,” he said.
“After the interview finished, we walked back to the room. Normally she’d go off to a tent, but she wanted to come back to the room to get a cold drink.
“Then I didn’t want to insult her at that point, I wanted to say goodbye – I thought I’d never see her again.
How Shamima Begum camps are fermenting twisted next generation of ISIS as kids make ‘cutthroat’ gesture & hurl firebombs
“I said, ‘Can I shake your hand?’ and she asked for a hug.
“So she gave me a hug and started to cry.”
Andrew, from Surrey, said he felt they had formed a connection and believed she regretted turning her back on Western society to join the murderous death cult.
“At that point I kind of believed that she was sincere,” he said.
I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it
Andrew Drury
“I kind of felt sorry for her. I thought at that point she’d been radicalised online, sent out as a prescribed bridge to somebody.
“She said she’d made a real bad mistake and really regretted what she’d done.
“She owned up to being this person that everybody hates in the UK.
“And I felt sorry for her, I’ve got young daughters, not a lot of difference in age, so I thought people do make mistakes, and I should give her a chance.”
Andrew – whose book Trip Hazard details his experience in dangerous areas – returned to the camp months later after GMB asked for his help to get an interview with Begum.
The author, who has exchanged hundreds of messages with Begum, said he noticed a “subtle change” in the former Brit.
Begum, who was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019, appeared to have undergone a more “Western” makeover – ditching her hijab and abaya.
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Andrew secured the Bafta-nominated live interview with Begum for Good Morning BritainCredit: Alamy
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Begum, then 19, pictured in 2019Credit: Times Media Ltd
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The former Brit at the camp in 2021Credit: Getty
“She had changed as a character,” Andrew said.
“She was more short. She wasn’t this nervous-cry sort of character.
“She looked assured, and she didn’t seem such a waif character, and she seemed to be in control of herself and her emotions.”
Andrew told how Begum spent the night before the live interview “rehearsing” with three of her friends In the camp, which is controlled by armed guards.
He added: “Her friends said they’d had their music playing and they were tutoring Shamima what to say.
“They seemed pretty together about what she should say, and they were schooling her.”
Begum married an IS fighter soon after arriving in Syria and went on to have three children, none of whom survived.
Andrew – who said he had formed a “bond” with Begum – told how after the interview, Shamima opened her purse and showed him photos of her children.
The tragic loss of his own brother Robert as a child made him sympathise with Shamima’s plight.
“One of them was a scene where the child must have been eight, nine months old, had chocolate around his face,” he recalled.
“I said, ‘What’s that?’ and she said, ‘Oh we used to like baking cakes’.
“And it actually makes me quite sad. It was really quite sad knowing the child had died.
“She made it sound like an honour that she had shared these pictures with me, which I guess it probably was, because she hadn’t shared them before she said.”
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But it was Begum’s attitude after Andrew returned to the UK that shocked him – and began to shatter their relationship.
“I said to her, ‘Those pictures you showed me really upset me, I hope you’re okay’,” he said.
“She messaged back and said, ‘Oh, they don’t bother me anymore. That doesn’t make me sad’.
“I thought, was that because she’s been traumatised so badly?
“But I think she is that hard. I think she’s calculated.
“I actually don’t think the death of her children actually bothered her in the slightest. She was not at all affected by it.”
After meeting Andrew a couple of times, Begum started asking him to bring stuff into the camp for her – including clothes.
The dad said he felt “at a crossroads” about whether to take what she wanted.
“I felt bad and guilty that I’d be taking somebody that carried out what could have been some atrocities, clothes,” he said.
“But then, probably on the soft side of me, and the fact is, she was a young girl, so I was playing with these emotions, but I took her the clothes from Primark.
“We had a bundle of stuff, we took some toys for the children because it’s not their fault.”
But then Begum’s requests started turning into demands, Andrew said.
“The messages continued,” he added.
Camps breeding next ISIS generation
Exclusive by Henry Holloway, Deputy Foreign Editor and Alan Duncan
A CHILD no older than eight draws his hand across his neck in a chilling throat-slitting gesture – the message is clear, “You are not welcome here”.
Other kids hurl stones, shout and scream – while one exasperated camp official shows us CCTV of two youngsters hurling a firebomb.
Welcome to camps al-Hol and al-Roj in northern Syria – the fates of which remain uncertain after the fall of tyrant Bashar al-Assad.
It is warned these stark detention centres are now the breeding ground for the next generation of the bloodthirsty cult.
And much of this new wave of radicalisation is feared to be coming from the mothers inside the camps.
Senior camp official Rashid Omer said: “The reality is – they are not changing. This is not a normal camp – this a bomb.”
He went on: “They are saying it was ISIS who ‘liberated’ Damascus – and soon they will be coming here.”
“And then they want to spread to Europe, to Africa, and then to everywhere.”
The two sprawling sites hold a total of nearly 60,000 including ISIS fighters, families and children.
At least 6,000 Westerners are still held among them – including infamous jihadi bride Shamima Begum, the 25-year-old from London.
“This time they became slightly more angry, slightly more direct.”
Before he planned to return to Syria again, Begum told him she wanted two books – Guantanamo Bay Diaries and Sea Prayer – which is inspired by the Syrian refugee crisis.
Andrew said she was also being schooled by her lawyer about her media presence.
He added: “What she declared by then is that she was hostage in a prison camp – where they were legally held.
“That’s how she started to see herself. All apologies had gone.
“She’d done a documentary with the BBC and was on the front of The Times magazine.
“She’d become a celebrity and was loving all the attention. She’d read all the newspaper articles.”
Andrew – who returned to the camp with a friend and no crew – took some clothes for Begum with him.
I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive
Andrew Drury
But it was his decision not to take the books she had demanded that revealed her true colours.
“I did go back again, but my feelings were already changing towards her,” Andrew said.
“It was a little boy’s birthday, and I felt so sorry for him.
“He wanted a Superman outfit, so I would have gone just for that, because I spend a lot of time in refugee camps. It’s not fair for these kids.
“I didn’t take the books Shamima wanted because I didn’t want to. I didn’t want her to have that opportunity to what I saw as studying how to be a victim.
“She opened the clothes, said she didn’t like them. I mean, this is a girl in a prison camp.
“She said, ‘I didn’t really care about the clothes, it was the books I wanted’. So she became quite aggressive in her nature.”
Who is Shamima Begum?
ISIS bride Shamima Begum, who was born in Britain, was stripped of her British citizenship on February 20, 2019.
Begum’s attitude then worsened when Andrew became interested in another girl’s story.
It was one of the final nails in the coffin in the bond Andrew believed they had initially formed.
“Shamima had a tantrum that the attention had been taken away from her,” he said.
“She was like a child that was pretending they were ill.
“So during this period of time I was beginning to feel like the connection was gone.
“It was broken, and I was beginning not to like her.
“I could see things in her I didn’t like. I didn’t trust her. Her behaviour was poor. She was angry and aggressive.
“I had found out from other girls what she was accused of, and they told me the same thing that I had heard before, like sewing suicide vests
“Things were ringing in my head like she said early on that the Manchester bombing was legitimate because of what happened in Iraq and Syria.
“So I didn’t trust her.”
Andrew’s last contact with Begum was around two years ago in a fiery text exchange.
She accused Andrew of “selling her out”, to which he shot back: “You’ve sold your country out.”
Begum last year lost her final appeal challenging the removal of her British citizenship.
She can now no longer fight to overturn the revocation of her citizenship within the UK legal system.
Andrew said: “I think she’s a danger for what she stood for, and I don’t think she could ever come back.
“I think she needs to go on trial in Syria for the crimes she committed against the Syrian people.”
Hamas said: “This proposal aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, (Israeli) withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and ensure the flow of aid to our people and families.”
There was no immediate response from Israel to the statement.
But PM Benjamin Netanyahu had last week told families of the hostages they had accepted the US proposals.
It comes as Gaza health officials said yesterday that 14 people had been killed and 284 injured in the past day.
FIVE protesters have been arrested after they allegedly targeted the filming of Gal Gadot’s new movie.
The demonstrators disrupted production at several locations across London in recent weeks, the Metropolitan Police said.
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Five protesters have been arrested after they allegedly targeted the filming of Gal Gadot’s new movieCredit: Getty
The force said the protestors targeted sets “solely because an actress involved in the production is Israeli”.
Gadot, 40, who served in the Israel Defense Forces, previously showed support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza after the October 7 Hamas attacks.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (Pacbi) has since argued people who support their group should boycott Gadot films.
Gadot is understood to currently be filming an action thriller called The Runner in the capital.
Police were called to a set location in Westminster on Wednesday.
Officers detained five people on suspicion of harassment and offences under Section 241 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act.
Two of the arrests were in relation to previous protests, while three were in response to incidents that unfolded on Wednesday.
All five remain in custody.
Supt Neil Holyoak said: “While we absolutely acknowledge the importance of peaceful protest, we have a duty to intervene where it crosses the line into serious disruption or criminality.
“We have been in discussions with the production company to understand the impact of the protests on their work and on any individuals involved.
“I hope today’s operation shows we will not tolerate the harassment of or unlawful interference with those trying to go about their legitimate professional work in London.”
The Runner, produced by David Kosse, stars Gadot as a lawyer on a mission to rescue her kidnapped son.
Gadot has been pictured back on set this week, despite the protests.
Demonstrations also followed the actress to her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony after her role in the latest Snow White movie.
A Pro-Palestine group stood outside the ceremony carrying signs reading: “Viva Viva Palestina”.
In a Variety interview earlier this week, Gadot said: “After October 7th [2023], I don’t talk politics — because who cares about the celebrity talking about politics?
“I’m an artist. I want to entertain people. I want to bring hope and be a beacon of light whenever I say anything about the world.
“But on October 7th, when people were abducted from their homes, from their beds, men, women, children, elderly, Holocaust survivors, were going through the horrors of what happened that day, I could not be silent.
“I’m not a hater. I’m a grandchild of a Holocaust survivor who came to Israel and established his family from scratch after his entire family was erased in Auschwitz.
“And on the other side of my family, I’m eighth generation Israeli. I’m an indigenous person of Israel.
“I am all about humanity and I felt like I had to advocate for the hostages. I am praying for better days for all.
“I want everybody to have good life and prosperity, and the ability to raise their children in a safe environment.”
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A Pro-Palestine group stood outside the ceremony carrying signs reading: “Viva Viva Palestina”Credit: Getty
British police say Mo Chara displayed a flag of Lebanon’s Hezbollah at a concert.
A member of the Irish rap band Kneecap has been charged with a “terrorism” offence in the United Kingdom for waving a flag of the armed Lebanese group Hezbollah at a concert in November 2024 in London.
Liam O’Hanna, whose stage name is Mo Chara, is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London on June 18, charged under the Terrorism Act, British police said on Wednesday.
Kneecap has been vocal in its support for the Palestinian cause since the October 7, 2023-led Hamas attacks and Israel’s devastating war on Gaza, equating the struggles of the Irish under British colonial rule to that of Palestinians under that of Israel.
Pro-Palestinian chants are a regular fixture in their gigs. The band says they have been targets of a smear campaign for calling out Israel’s genocidal war.
KNEECAP STATEMENT:
Since our statements at Coachella — exposing the ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people — we have faced a coordinated smear campaign.
For over a year, we have used our shows to call out the British and Irish governments’ complicity in war crimes.… pic.twitter.com/mBojb5QBOP
The Belfast trio is also well known for its political and satirical lyrics and use of symbolism associated with the Irish Republican movement, which seeks to unite Northern Ireland, currently part of the UK, with the Republic of Ireland.
More than 3,600 people were killed during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland during “The Troubles” involving the Irish Republican Army (IRA), pro-British Loyalist militias and the UK security forces.
Kneecap takes its name from a brutal punishment, which involved being shot in the kneecaps, that was meted out by paramilitary groups to informers and drug dealers.
The band has been praised for invigorating the Irish-language cultural scene in Northern Ireland, where the status of the language remains a contested political issue in a society still split between Protestant British Unionists and Catholic Irish Nationalist communities.
It has also been criticised for lyrics laden with expletives and drug references.
Kneecap came under intense scrutiny and criticism last month during their performance at the music festival Coachella in California when they projected the words “F*** Israel. Free Palestine.” on stage.
“The Irish not so long ago were persecuted by the Brits, but we were never bombed from the f****** skies with nowhere to go! The Palestinians have nowhere to go – it’s their f****** home and they’re bombing them from the sky. If you’re not calling it a genocide what the f*** are you calling it?” read the words projected by Mo Chara.
Kneecap came under renewed scrutiny at the start of this month when UK intelligence said they would investigate comments made by the rap group about UK and Middle East politics.
They were reported to police over footage from a 2024 concert in which a band member appeared to say: “The only good Tory is a dead Tory. Kill your local MP.” Footage from another concert, in 2023, appears to show a member of the trio shouting “Up Hamas, Up Hezbollah” – the UK considers both to be “terrorist” organisations.
In response, Kneecap said it had “never supported Hamas or Hezbollah,” and accused “establishment figures” of taking comments out of context to “manufacture moral hysteria” because of the band’s criticism of Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
Several Kneecap gigs have been cancelled as a result of the controversy, and some British lawmakers have called on organisers of June’s Glastonbury Festival to scrap a planned performance by the group.
The ideological battlegrounds of northern Nigeria are disintegrating into a shadow war of self-interest, racial hierarchies, and fragmented loyalties. Once defined by rigid command structures, today’s extremist threat is unrecognised, more volatile, decentralised, and shaped by trauma, greed, and chaos spreading in the Sahel.
Nowhere is this transformation more visible than in the Lake Chad and northwestern corridors, where fighters once bound by allegiance to leaders like Abubakar Shekau now operate as scattered cells, many with no allegiance beyond the immediate spoils of violence. After Shekau’s brutal demise in 2021 at the hands of ISWAP, his loyalists either vanished into civilian communities or re-emerged under new, hyper-localised identities in places like Zamfara, Niger, and Kogi, and they are now emerging in large numbers in Plateau State. Without a central ideology or external coordination, many of these cells have adopted a hybrid identity: part insurgent, part bandit, part mercenary. They extract taxes, conduct kidnappings, and mete out selective justice on communities, not in service of any doctrinal purity, but to retain control and fear.
In the face of racism and setbacks, two jihadists fight on
Deep within Sahelian jihadist networks lies a festering problem rarely acknowledged publicly: the racism faced by Black African fighters at the hands of their Arab and Tuareg counterparts. Slurs like Sammara (slave) or Zool are commonplace within militant camps in Libya, Algeria, Mali, and Niger, echoing the same historical contempt that fueled slave routes centuries ago. For many sub-Saharan fighters, these insults are more than rhetorical. They are reminders that in the eyes of their comrades, they remain expendable.
Two former foreign fighters, now back on the frontlines of northwestern Nigeria, spoke exclusively to HumAngle through an intermediary. “Internal rifts and betrayals amongst mujahideen have made collective operations against their enemies near-impossible,” said Abu Maryam. Now isolated, Abu Maryam and three of his friends navigate the perilous landscape of northwest Nigeria, drifting from one group after another.
He left Libya after he could no longer tolerate the racial slurs. “No matter how good you are, if you are fighting among Arab fighters, you are likely to remain a Jundun bila rutba (a soldier without a rank), with rare chances of growing through the ranks to become a Munzir or Ka’id (senior members of military wings),” he said. “I have seen several dark-skinned brothers like me, and on some occasions, they have called me Sammara.”
Abu Maryam left the Fezzan region of Libya in 2022, after spending two and a half years there, because he experienced racial slurs and saw no effort to address the problem. “I had previously lived in Mali, so I didn’t stay there; I came straight to Bosso in Lake Chad to fight alongside fellow mujahideen of ISWAP.” He noted that with ISWAP, fighters initially had a strong bond. However, hatred emerged among brothers who once fought alongside each other but disagreed only on doctrine yet chose violence instead of dialogue to settle their differences. “There was an obsession to control everyone, which was unbearable for me. While I don’t like some Arabs because of racial discrimination, they are not intoxicated with power like I have seen in Lake Chad.”
Another Jihadist interviewed for this article, who gave his name only as Ibrahima, said he was a victim of racial discrimination in his home country of Niger, specifically in the desert of Agadez. He fought alongside some Tuaregs associated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. He did not provide many details about his past; it’s likely Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). He left shortly after and joined ISWAP in early 2022, where he met Abu Maryam. The two bonded quickly because of their similar Hausa and Arabic dialects and experiences as mid-ranking fighters. As fate would have it, both later defected along with a group of fighters and are now reportedly operating in Sokoto.
“We are not aligned with ISWAP since we left our Mubaya’a without permission, and now that we are fighting without a caliph, it makes our Jihad incomplete,” he said.
According to Abu Maryam, ISWAP in Lake Chad is the most organised among all the groups he fought alongside since 2019, when he chose the path of violence as an expression of his religious beliefs. However, constant leadership feuds and disproportionate punishments in ISWAP, such as death or imprisonment for merely possessing a mobile phone or transistor radio, drove them away. “This is why we left,” Abu Maryam said, “because punishment for every wrongdoing must adhere to the provisions of Sharia.”
“We were fighting for justice, but all I found in Agadez was bigotry. Here [referring to ISWAP], it’s no better; leaders fight over money and control. I’m done for now. I’ll wait until I find a cause, a leader worth following,” Ibrahima confessed.
A close observer of Nigeria’s conflict landscape highlighted a significant oversight in Nigeria’s counter-violent extremism program. He noted that the programme failed to exploit certain vulnerabilities among the insurgents, which could have been leveraged to further fracture their ranks. Regrettably, individuals such as Abu Maryam and Ibrahima did not participate in the federal government’s various deradicalisation initiatives. Instead, they have aligned with numerous other fighters, establishing new fronts and forming small, dispersed criminal gangs that are increasingly becoming difficult to track and contain.
Local authorities have the potential to exploit these racial tensions by sending targeted messages, promoting defections, and cultivating distrust among various factions and individuals. A good example of this is the brilliant manner in which Nigerian intelligence capitalised on the demise of Abubakar Shekau to create a pathway for thousands of Boko Haram defectors and residents within their sphere of influence to leave. The extended olive branch was so inviting that it even drew in members from opposing factions, like ISWAP.
The deep roots of racism against Sub-Saharan Africans
This longstanding prejudice against Black Africans has manifested in various forms over centuries, reflecting broader societal attitudes and systemic inequalities that persist to date.
In the 1880s, the Mahdist State in Sudan emerged as an anti-colonial religious movement. However, the regime implemented racial distinctions, creating a divide between the Nile Valley Arabs and the Black Africans. The Black skin fighters, despite their crucial role in military campaigns, remained marginalised in matters of governance and spiritual leadership.
In the context of Libya’s ongoing civil war, sub-Saharan migrants have reported severe racial profiling. A slogan that praises rebel fighters for purging Black slaves was boldly written on a poster in Misrata during the fighting that toppled and killed Libya’s former leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
Black African fighters from Mauritania, Mali, and Niger, who are part of AQIM and its associated groups, have consistently expressed concerns about their treatment as disposable combatants. The leadership landscape there is predominantly characterised by Arab or Tuareg fighters. Numerous accounts from defectors over the years lend support to the lived experiences of Abu Maryam and Ibrahima.
The internal divisions within JNIM in Mali and Burkina Faso highlight a complicated relationship that includes doctrinal disagreements alongside underlying tensions between Tuareg leadership and Black African foot soldiers. This dynamic has resulted in Bambara, Songhai, and Hausa fighters experiencing discrimination, according to multiple accounts.
Additionally, despite ISIS’s claims of a worldwide recruitment initiative, Black African fighters were either absent from their propaganda videos or not placed in leadership roles during the peak of their operations in Iraq and Syria. Numerous fighters from Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan have expressed concerns regarding racial isolation and a tendency to be assigned to high-risk missions at a disproportionate rate.
Systemic flaws crippling Nigeria’s counter-terrorism: Data, Identity, and Borders
Nigeria’s failure to consolidate and enforce a unified national biometric database means the state cannot verify who resides within its borders nor who crosses them. This void undermines virtually every aspect of counter-terrorism: Suspects can acquire dozens of SIM cards under false identities or without registration. Although Nigeria mandates NIN-SIM linkage, enforcement remains poor. Criminals discard and switch phones with ease, evading tracking and surveillance. There is no interoperable system linking national ID, voter registration, police records, immigration, and telecom data. Such information makes cross-checking identities across institutions impossible.
Fighters from Mali, Niger, and Cameroon move freely into Nigeria through routes like the Illela–Birnin Konni axis, the Damasak–Diffa corridor, and the Baga–Lake Chad region. Intelligence gathering and sharing remain fragmented across agencies like DSS, NIA, police, and military. Without a unified database or command structure, actionable intelligence about suspects’ movements, aliases, and contacts is often lost or buried in bureaucracy.
Aside from the borders, even city centres remain porous. In one instance, a former captive reportedly encountered one of his terrorist captors in a mosque in Kaduna. In another, fighters were reported by HumAngle to have evaded official radicalisation programmes by the government and are living normal lives in communities they once referred to as DarulKufr (land of disbelievers), where they once killed such residents at will.
HumAngle’s continuous investigations in Nigeria and West Africa have shown that former Boko Haram fighters who have not migrated to new battle zones or participated in government deradicalisation programs now work as mechanics, artisans, and market vendors, with some even becoming Uber drivers in major cities.
The reasons some of these fighters gave HumAngle for abandoning local groups are similar to the accounts of Abu Maryam and Ibrahima in the Maghreb. Ethnic tensions remain a major obstacle to cohesion within local armed groups in Nigeria. After the death of Boko Haram leader Shekau, efforts to centralise leadership faltered, partly because some of the commanders considered most eligible were non-Kanuri, highlighting deep-seated tribal divisions.
Within ISWAP, non-Kanuri fighters have also complained of exclusion from key meetings that were mainly conducted in Kanuri. In the northwest, Fulani-dominated groups are similarly resistant to outside leadership. These dynamics reveal how ethnicity continues to shape power and loyalty more than ideology.
In a nation lacking a comprehensive database and where obtaining a SIM card is as straightforward as purchasing a bus ticket, tracking communications and migration of terrorists and other criminals have become a formidable challenge. Fighters exploit Nigeria’s digital opacity, activating and discarding phone numbers at will. Law enforcement, often under-equipped and under-trained, chases shadows across digital landscapes they can neither map nor monitor.
The result is a security architecture built on guesswork. Analysts and security forces continue to lump diverse threats under the blanket term “Boko Haram”. In southern Nigeria, nearly all kidnappers are classified as “Fulani herders”, failing to distinguish between ideological cells, rogue vigilantes, ethnic militias, and survivalist criminal gangs. It also feeds ethnic profiling in northern Nigeria, as observed by several HumAngle reports.
Yusuf Anka, an award-winning former conflict reporter in northwest Nigeria, said, “If Fulanis are negatively profiled in the north, imagine what their experience in southern Nigeria could be.” The costs of this misdiagnosis have been misdirected airstrikes, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, and a loss of trust with communities that could otherwise assist intelligence efforts in containing the problem.
From Mali to Borno, from Libya to Zamfara, what we are witnessing is a continental contagion, a pattern of fragmentation, racial tension, and decentralised violence. Terrorism and violent crime threats have gone from coordinated ideology to disjointed insurgency and criminal networks. And Nigeria is now one of its most combustible frontlines.
Video shows aftermath of an explosion outside a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California that killed one person. The FBI says the blast, which damaged several buildings, was an ‘intentional act of terrorism’.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accused a Mexican woman of furnishing a cartel with grenades and other weapons.
The United States has revealed the first federal charges against a foreign national for providing material support to one of the criminal groups that President Donald Trump has designated a “foreign terrorist organisation”.
On Friday, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a statement identifying the suspect as 39-year-old Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez of Mexico.
An unsealed indictment accused Navarro-Sanchez of furnishing the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), a Mexican drug cartel, with grenades and helping it smuggle migrants, firearms, money and drugs.
“Cartels like CJNG are terrorist groups that wreak havoc in American communities and are responsible for countless lives lost in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement.
“This announcement demonstrates the Justice Department’s unwavering commitment to securing our borders and protecting Americans through effective prosecution.”
The charges stem from a decision early in Trump’s second term in office to apply “terrorism” designations to foreign criminal organisations, including gangs and drug cartels.
On his first day back in office, on January 20, Trump signed an executive order declaring that “international cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime”. He directed his officials to begin preparations for implementing the “terrorism” designations.
By February 19, the Federal Register in the US listed eight Latin American criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organisations”, among them the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).
Mexico’s Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion was also among that initial group of designated organisations.
Since then, the Trump administration has broadened its scope, adding more Latin American groups to the list. On May 2, for instance, two Haitian gangs – Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif – joined the US’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.
These designations are a departure from the usual use of the “foreign terrorist” label, often reserved for organisations that seek specific political aims through their violence.
Critics, however, warn that this application could have unintended consequences, particularly for civilians in vulnerable situations. The “foreign terrorist designation” makes it a crime for anyone to offer material support to a given group, but criminal gangs often extort civilians for money and services as part of their fundraising activities.
“You could accuse anyone – from a migrant who pays a smuggler to a Mexican business that is forced to pay a ‘protection fee’ – of offering material or financial support to a terrorist organisation,” Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera journalist Brian Osgood earlier this year.
In the case unsealed on Friday, it was revealed that Navarro-Sanchez was arrested on May 4. She had two co-defendants, also Mexican citizens, who likewise faced charges of firearms trafficking and other crimes.
The Mexican government had previously confirmed Navarro-Sanchez’s arrest. A statement ICE released to the media showed multiple firearms and packages of meth and fentanyl allegedly linked to the case.
It also included a photo of a golden AR-15 gun known as “El Dorado” that was reportedly “recovered from Navarro-Sanchez’s possession during her arrest in Mexico”.
“Supplying grenades to a designated terrorist organisation – while trafficking firearms, narcotics, and human beings – is not just criminal,” said ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons. “It’s a direct assault on the security of the United States.”
For almost 30 years, the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 has been a forgotten headline. Now, the BBC are shining a light on the tragedy – leaving Connor Swindells lost for words.
The BBC is airing a bombshell drama about the bombing of Pan Am flight 103(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/World Productions)
December 21, 1988. A routine transatlantic flight from Heathrow to JFK ends in catastrophe. Pan Am Flight 103 explodes mid-air over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack on US citizens before 9/11, yet for many – including some of the cast of BBC One’s gripping new series The Bombing Of Pan Am 103 – the tragedy has become a forgotten headline.
“I didn’t know much about it before,” says Sex Education actor Connor Swindells, 28, who plays a Scottish detective. “The filming process was really informative.”
His co-star, Suits’ Patrick J Adams, 43, says, “I was seven years old when it happened and living in the UK at the time. As soon as I heard a series was being made about the events, I thought, ‘How has this never happened before?’”
In the six-part series, also coming to Netflix, Connor and Patrick play opposing forces in the aftermath of the bombing. Connor steps into the role of DS Ed McCusker, the detective leading the case on home soil.
Patrick portrays his American counterpart and rival, FBI special agent Dick Marquise. As Scotland and the US wrangle for control of the investigation in a bid to seek answers, political friction and personal grief collide.
Connor Swindells shot to fame on Netflix’s Sex Education as Adam Groff. He’s now thrown into geopolitical turmoil in the BBC’s The Bombing of Pan Am 103(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/World Productions)
The series doesn’t shy away from the geopolitical tensions that followed the bombing. While the FBI got involved assuming there would be cooperation, they were met with resistance from the Scottish authorities.
“I thought the FBI would be welcomed to any investigation,” says Patrick. “But this happened on Scottish soil – it belonged to them. There was friction despite everyone wanting the same thing.”
That complexity was front and centre for Connor, who found the emotional weight of his role intense. “This is a story that must be handled with care,” he says. “It’s been a real lesson in trying to do justice to the truth every single day, which is how it should be.”
Joining Patrick and Connor are Merritt Wever as FBI victim services director Kathryn Turman and Eddie Marsan as explosives expert Tom Thurman. Like Connor, Merritt knew little about the tragedy before filming.
The tragedy took place in 1988, killing 270 people and becoming the deadliest terror attack in British history(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/World Productions)
“It wasn’t on my radar,” she says. “But once I started speaking to people, so many had connections.” Eddie, however, remembers it vividly. “It was a terrible moment in history,” he says.
Kathryn went on to reshape the FBI from the inside out once the investigation was closed. “She saw that, back in 1988, these big investigative institutions lacked a framework for putting families first in the wake of these disasters.
She helped transform the Department of Justice and FBI, essentially giving them a heart,” says Merritt. Writer Jonathan Lee hopes the series does justice to the enormity of the event – and its continued relevance.
“It was the biggest crime scene the world had ever seen at the time,” he says. “They had to piece together the communication lines across borders, beliefs and individual agendas. It’s a lesson we’re constantly learning and unlearning.”
Are Islamophobic crimes less likely to be classed as terrorism offences? The murder of 22-year-old Aboubakar Cisse at a French mosque should be investigated by anti-terror police, according to the lawyer representing the victim’s family. He spoke to Al Jazeera’s Hind Touissate.
